Professor Rob Toulson

April 2015

All systems go with the Daisy and The Dark EP and iPhone app project, which has seen us complete the mixes for the Red Planet EP and signed off the mastering with our favourite goldenears Mandy Parnell. Dividing my time between mixing and writing iPhone app software leads to many a late night!

 

I also submitted a huge research bid to the European Commission on innovations relating to high-definition music production and playback, fingers crossed for some funding...

 

March 2015

Ethan Ash released his Face To Face EP, which was recorded and produced by myself, mixed by Grammy winner Simon Gogerly and mastered by Grammy winner Mandy Parnell. Great to see this EP released on the world and receiving some fabulous feedback.

 

February 2015

Daisy and The Dark's debut single Waltzing is released along with a beautiful video directed by BAFTA winner Shreepali Patel. It's great to see the Daisy project moving up through the gears! I'm organising and hosting the next Innovation In Music Conference in Cambridge in June  2015, and we're starting to announce some exciting keynote speakers from the music industry - check out the conference wbsite at www.innovationinmusic.com.

 

January 2015

Back in the studio for intense mixing sessions with Daisy and The Dark. Also Ethan Ash launched his new video for Chasing Your Love which we produced together during 2014. My Arts and Humanities Research Council funded Interactive Digital Music project is hotting up. Some fun app development in full swing and looking forward to showcasing our innovations in the near future...

 

December 2014

Presented my album-app research at the Art of Record Production conference in Oslo, which meant catching up with many good friends including Richard James Burgess (producer Spandau Ballet) and Phil Harding (Producer/Engineer for Kylie, Dead or Alive and East 17). The book Innovation In Music which I co-edited was published this month too.

 

November 2014

Exciting times with Daisy an The Dark, finalising the debut single Waltzing and perfoming at the single campaign launch in London King's Cross. Also out and about mastering the Ethan Ash EP with Mandy Parnell, who has received two 2015 Grammy nominations for her work on the new Annie Lennox and Aphex Twin albums. Also another string recording session for the I Strip For Couple album. My book on digital electronics was also translated and published in Chinese, which is quite surreal! The Mediaeval Baebes album 'Of Kings and Angels' was also released on vinyl, my first double vinyl release.

 

October 2014

A trip to the Audio Engineering Society Conference in Los Angeles brought lots of new contacts and inspirations. Excellent times at studio parties at Ocean Way and Steven Slate's event at NRG Studios in Hollywood. October was also consumed by working with Grammy winner Simon Gogerly on the final Ethan Ash mixes for his forthcoming EP. 

 

September 2014

A busy month including some mastering for the Mediaeval Baebes and final production tasks for Ethan Ash's next EP. Daisy and The Dark's Take Cover EP was also released, along with the video for the final track Maps.

 

July / August 2014

Back on the road playing guitar for Daisy and The Dark, including performances at The Secret Garden Party - view photos here. Also presented my Album App research project at various events - see here for more details.

 

June 2014

I gave a series of lectures at the Natural History Museum titled 'The Future of Music', discussing a number of concepts and research projects relating to how we make and distribute music now and in the future. Watch my lecture here...

 

I also published an update to my iDrumTune iPhone app, which helps drummers and sound engineers to tune and setup drums, check it out here...

 

May 2014

Intense production work with Ethan Ash and Daisy and The Dark continues!...

 

April 2014

Back on stage playing guitar for Daisy and The Dark at a few gigs, as well as mixing and mastering the first single from Sarah Kayte Foster's solo project. I also ran a workshop at the Audio Engineering Society Conference in Berlin alongside award winning sound engineers Mandy Parnel, Andreas 'Lupo' Lubich and Jonathon Shakhovskoy. I've also been working in production with Ethan Ash and Grammy winning mix engineer Simon Gogerly - some exciting new tunes are materialising!

 

March 2014

I've been working on the new Francois and the Atlas Mountains album - Piano Ombre - in helping develop the first ever album in the form of an iPhone App. This app is the first to be chart eligible so represents a brand new way to buy music, including artwork, song lyrics, producer credits, bonus tracks and more - all the things we used to get from vinyl. I've also been talking about this project and the future of music formats in general on various BBC radio stations.

 

March 2014

Mixing and mastering the new From The Deep album, which is sounding fantastic and really putting the new studo through its paces. I also presented at the Institute of Acoustic's symposium on Sound Recording Techniques - here's the link to my presentation slides.

 

March 2014

My string recording session with I Strip For Couples  was written up as a Sound On Sound feature - here's the link to the online article.

 

February 2014

Back in the mix room with Ethan Ash, Daisy and The Dark and I Strip For Couples - busy times!

 

January 2014

A full two weeks in the studio with Daisy and The Dark kicks off 2014 in style, including a few sessions with the fabulous Claudia McKenzie on bass. Also tracking strings for the new I Strip For Couples record which is going to sound amazing!

 

December 2013

Mediaeval Baebes album Of Kings And Angels (engineered and mixed by Rob Toulson) is released, reaching the top 10 of the UK Classical charts and receiving 4/5 star reviews in both The Times and The Sun newspapers. The Mediaeval Baebes perform a sold out UK Christmas tour and appear live on ITV on Christmas Eve and on BBC Radio 2 on Christmas Day.

 

December 2013

Rob interviews mulit-platinum producer Jake Gosling (Ed Sheeran, Paloma Faith) in front of a live audience at the Innovation In Music 2013 Conference in York, UK. A number of papers are also presented by Rob on new research in music production, in collaboration with legendary mastering engineers Barry Grint and Ray Staff.

 

November 2013

Rob delivers a prestigeous Audio Engineering Society lecture at Dolby Laboratories' London HQ. The lecture covers a number of cutting edge sound engineering and music production research studies.

 

October 2013

Rob leads a workshop titled Mastering Our Future Music at the Audio Engineering Society 2013 convention in New York. The workshop panel also includes Grammy nominated mastering engineers Mandy Parnell (Bjork, Sigor Ros), Michael Romanowski and mixer Jonathan Shakhovskoy (Shakira, U2, Beady Eye).

 

September 2013

Prduction and recording with Daisy And The Dark, including a fantastic drum session with Alex Reeves of Dizzee Rascal and Bat For Lashes.

 

August 2012

Ethan Ash's single Haven't Got There Yet  is released (produced and engineered by Rob). Rob and Ethan also work on songwriting and demo recording with Janet Devlin.

 

July 2013

Rob is mixing the Mediaeval Baebes album Of Kings And Angels and a number of tracks for female fronted metal band Pythia.